Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill writes a politics column Tuesdays in 24 Hours newspaper and The Tyee online magazine.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

BC Liberals, environmental groups full of hot air on carbon tax that rips off British Columbians

Next, look at the B.C. Liberals' bogus claim that the gas tax is "revenue neutral." Half of the $1.8 billion in new gas tax money raised over three years goes to business tax cuts - most to big corporations and banks.

Then consider who is hurt most by this regressive consumption tax - lower income earners, especially those with no options to reduce use of gas, heating fuels and other carbon-taxed products.

As Simon Fraser University's Cohen points out: "Those least able to afford a tax increase will be disproportionately affected."

Amazingly, 16 environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Club and Wilderness Committee, travelled to Victoria to support an ineffective carbon tax from a government that has obliterated environmental protection.

And Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson lauded Campbell's policies as "the most progressive in North America" while attacking the B.C. New Democrats, but without disclosing he co-authored a book on climate change with Campbell's special adviser on the topic, Mark Jaccard.

5 comments:

DL
said...

Norman got it right as far as a lot of people see this latest Cambell vision. Not well thought out, which is not that unusual for Gordo. The environmentalists have been , in their view, ignored for years so junped on Gordo's runaway freight train before finding out just where it is going

Usually, the press and the pundits are quicker to call a government policy move a big deal in favour of Group X than are the members of Group X.

Consider a labour law change. Whose more likely to be fully satisfied that it meets all of labour's legitimate demands, the average reporter, or the average union leader? Same with a tax cut for business. Who's most likely to see it as everything business could hope for, the media or the board of trade types?

The weird thing here is that the usual order of satisfaction has been totally reversed. While media types are chuckling that this carbon tax isn't even a fraction of a loaf, the supposed client group in question, the organized environmental industry and some associated professorial types, are falling all over themselves, singing in unison, "This is the Greatest!" It's very, very weird.

I wonder what's really got them so excited? I wonder when we'll find out what it is.

2% for Norway is a HUGE amount when the GHG emissions were increasing with their oil production (as we are in the tar sands and Peace River drilling). It works, it's been proven to work and the more you NDP hacks continue harping on how much this carbon tax is going to "rip us off," why not consider the costs of NOT imposing one. Then, carbon has no price tag as an externality and businesses and citizens that emit don't have to consider switching to alternative forms of transportation, energy, etc and effects of Climate Change continue for next generations to fix. Then we will all be ripped off.

Of course it needs improvement, and it's just a first step. But, my generation, recent university and college graduates, have no time to wait for the politics of suspicion around environmental groups "so desperate to curry favour with the B.C. Liberals."

Our planet is in peril and we need to put a price on unsustainable habits like driving and use that revenue to reward environmentally sustainable behaviours like taking transit.

I signed up for the Suzuki Foundation roughly 6 years ago. I was enthusiastic about being associated with, what I thought was, a wise, well-informed, aggressive, environmentally friendly association. Now, 6 years later, I have discovered that the Suzuki Foundation is nothing more than a money mill. I receive endless amounts of "junk" mail requesting money but there are NO notices of fund raising events or opportunities to volunteer for or participate in environmental events. I have tried to sign up for the fundraisers but have found a deadend trail. The only participation the Suzuki Foundation wants is your money! They don't want your time or your ideas.I am acutely disappointed in what I believed was an oragnization that truly challenged government and corporate interests which take advantage of every opportunity to benefit from RESOURCE DESTRUCTION and the infamous P3 Agreements.Sadly we are now informed that the Suzuki Foundation endorses the new B.C. Liberal Green Taxon Fuel with NO accountability as to How these funds will be distributed. But.....Oh.....thank GAWD they justified this benevolent tax by declaring that ...

It will be a revenue-neutral tax, and the money will be returned to taxpayers in tax cuts and incentives, Finance Minister Carole Taylor promised in her budget speech.

What a joke!!!! I can't believe believe that the Suzuki Foundation is in bed with the BC Provincial Liberals...but hey...the information is all there.

The only reporter that had the "wasabis" to state that it was a bogus tax grab and that the "revenue-nuetral" aspect was simply a "smoke and mirrors" approach was Bill Tielman.

I am disgusted by the Suzuki Foundation for buying into the hype. I no longer support the Suzuki Foundation and would appreciate it if you would stop sending me little envelopes to send my contribution in. Or maybe I should be directing my complaints to the Fremason Society?!?!

Suzuki you are fast losing you credibility. People are not as stupid as you think!

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.